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‘Where I’m meant to be’: Maddie ‘The Baddy' Feaunati enjoying England homecoming
Maddie Feaunati will take the next step on her increasingly meteoric entrance to Test rugby at Kingsholm on Saturday when she starts an England match for the first time.
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Sadia Kabeya’s ankle injury has created a space in the Red Roses back row that Feaunati will hope to fill not only against France in Gloucester but at Allianz Stadium seven days later, when England play New Zealand, and at WXV 1 in Canada and beyond.
Considering the Leeds-born flanker only returned to England full-time at the beginning of last season and made her first Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) start for Exeter Chiefs in January, it has been an impressive rise.
Feaunati, the daughter of former Bath number eight Isaac, qualified for New Zealand and Samoa prior to linking up with the Red Roses, but there was never any doubt about where her allegiances lay.
Having lived in Bath until the age of nine, England was always calling. “When we were in New Zealand for so long, it was like, ‘When are we going home?’” Feaunati says.
“When are we going back to where we grew up and where everyone that played rugby that we knew was.
“Then obviously as we got older and more and more years passed – I don’t think Covid helped either – it was like, we’ve got two homes now.
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“But this is definitely where I’m meant to be and want to be.”
Many of Feaunati’s formative rugby memories centre on her family’s time in Bath, “hanging around the Rec” with her dad, Michael Lipman, Jonny Fa’amatuainu and Eliota Fuimaono- Sapolu.
“Bath won [the Challenge Cup] one year and I remember going on the bus and then going on the field after and walking round,” she recalls. “Those are the cool memories I have.”
Feaunati admits she still has ‘uncle’ Jonny’s Playstation with a prized copy of Rugby ’08 but it was during a trip to watch an aunty play when she was around five years old that she came into contact with the women’s game – and a couple of her current team-mates.
“I remember watching Marlie [Packer] and Mo [Hunt] specifically because my dad used to help out with the girls on Tuesday nights and he was like, ‘Let’s go watch’,” she says.
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“Someone got airlifted to hospital. That’s how I specifically remember it.”
“It was just really nice to hear that was the first women’s game she watched, and I was a part of it,” England captain Packer says.
“That was her first impression and now she will be doing that to other young girls and boys.”
It isn’t only the next generation that Feaunati has impressed since signing for Exeter at the end of last year.
Sarah Hunter, England’s record cap holder and current Red Roses defence coach, was the first person in this country to note the flanker’s international potential.
“When I first spoke to her, I was definitely starstruck,” Feaunati admits.
“I guess when I came over I had absolutely nothing to lose and that was my mindset in those [early] games,” she adds. “I knew the time I was getting off the bench was limited, so I just always [thought], ‘I just need to make an impact, whatever I do, any opportunity I get’.
“And I guess I did come from New Zealand at the time and [made] the same sacrifices. So, it was always like, just go out there and don’t put pressure on yourself but yeah, I guess I did think that I had a point to prove.”
Packer and head coach John Mitchell are now both fully paid-up members of the ‘Maddie the Baddy’ – a nickname bestowed upon her during a Red Roses darts night – fan club.
“She’s come on leaps and bounds over her time with us. She’s a power player,” her captain says. Mitchell adds that the young flanker provides “heaps of upsides” to his squad.
Feaunati reveals she found the Red Roses an inviting environment when she was called into it at the start of the year.
“Everyone was just so nice and helpful,” she says. “I could go sit in anyone’s car or go walk with anyone to coffee.”
The current regime’s desire to let the players’ personalities shine certainly helped in that regard and Feaunati is an adherent to that philosophy on and off the pitch.
Asked about the qualities she prides herself on, the 22-year-old says: “Obviously, you just want to be that person that everyone can chat to and always be kind and there for your team-mates.
“But then on the pitch, just the opposite and just like the one that can carry us forwards, use footwork and my work rate as well on the pitch.”
Now she is becoming a fixture in the squad will it be harder for Feaunati to maintain that ‘nothing-to-lose’, ‘never-say-die’ attitude?
Not so, according to the flanker. “It’s just taking the experiences, and the experience of pressure,” she says.
“I guess I just always fall back on that mentality I had when you didn’t overthink anything. So, just really believing in and backing my ability.”
Should things go according to plan at Kingsholm this Saturday then that belief, and her supreme ability, could take her to a starting role against New Zealand at Allianz Stadium.
For someone who came of age with Hurricanes Poua in Super Rugby Aupiki, lining up against the Black Ferns in Twickenham would be a particularly special occasion.
“It is obviously lingering in the back of my mind,” she admits. “Some of my best mates are in that team, or the girls that I’ve played most of my rugby with, so it would be a good test.
“But I’m fully focused on Saturday.”
If the last nine months have shown us anything, then France will need to be on their guard at Kingsholm.
